Shichi-go-san

Shichi-go-san, (Japanese: “Seven-Five-Three”), one of the most important festivals for Japanese children, observed annually on November 15. On this date girls of three and seven years of age and boys of five years of age are taken by their parents to the Shintō shrine of their tutelary deity to offer thanks for having reached their respective ages and to invoke blessings for the future. In former times the day was also marked by five-year-old boys of the samurai class being dressed in a hakama (pleated, divided skirt) and presented to their respective feudal lords, seven-year-old girls wearing the formal obi (stiff sash), and the three-year-old girls having their hair arranged on top of their heads, all for the first time.

Japanese girls dressed for the Shichi-go-san festival.

Dan Short

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...rites of passage are observed in Japan. The first visit of a newborn baby to the tutelary kami, which occurs 30 to 100 days after birth, is to initiate the baby as a new adherent. The Shichi-go-san (Seven-Five-Three) festival on November 15 is the occasion for boys of five years and girls of three and seven years of age to visit the shrine to give thanks for kami’s...